Now this is one instance where Indians are not blindly trying to ape the west, although for some time, some of our Bollywood celebrities did try to do the same here. It was only when a journalist realized that this innovative & fun idea to raise awareness about a pressing issue had to be tweaked to suit a country like India.
And it seems that going ahead, rice will replace ice in the new bucket challenge in India, and it makes complete sense too.
Purnima Sri Iye (right), a journalist at Metro India, is among the first to donate rice as part of the Rice Bucket Challenge.
But before that, a bit about the original version of the Ice bucket challenge which was designed to raise funds to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease and motor neurone disease (MND).
As part of this challenge, people take videos of themselves getting doused with a bucket full of ice, share it online, and challenge friends to do the same or donate money to the cause. The challenge soon became a rage and went viral globally.
Hundreds of celebrities — from Oprah Winfrey to Roger Federer — have participated and fueled interest, raising more than $70 million in donations for the ALS Association.
In India too, the ice bucket challenge generated attention as some of our Bollywood stars tried mirroring their Hollywood counterparts — but that was when someone suggested a better idea that seems more apt for a country like India — the Rice Bucket Challenge.
Here, the ice is replaced with rice! So donate a bucket of rice to someone in need, post a photo online, and challenge your friends to do the same.
Not only this challenge will help fight hunger, rice is something that people in India eat everyday, and it can be stored for months as well. Another good thing is that this is a drier alternative, you don’t have to waste water. There are many in India who barely have access to a couple of buckets of water for the entire day.
#RiceBucketChallenge is already on its way to going viral in India — it’s on TV news, on Twitter, and it now has a Facebook page with thousands of likes. People form countries like Sweden, England, and beyond are also pouring in their letters of appreciation for such a wonderful initiative.
Although the brains behind the original Ice bucket challenge have to be appreciated and hope it continues to gain popularity, its heartening to see that people in India have tweaked it to come up with an Indian challenge that fights an Indian need: fighting hunger, and the good thing is that new challenge is already seeing an explosion of interest.
Bollywood Celebrities – Ice Bucket Challenge
Here are some of our Bollywood celebrities who had taken part in the Ice Bucket Challenge
Poonam Pandey – As expected, she took the challenge in a bikini, after her fans had challenged for ALS Ice Bucket challenge. Later she challenged the three best Khans of the industry; Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. She had also nominated Gauahar Khan for the challenge but later took it back, because of Gauahar’s medical condition.
Sunny Leone – She also took part in the Ice Bucket challenge (was properly dressed though). she nominated Yo Yo Honey Singh to do the challenge within 24 hours.
Sidharth Malhotra – Sidharth accepted Riteish’s challenge saying, ‘from one villain to the other’. He then nominated, Arjun Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Mohit Suri for the same.
Sonakshi Sinha – She smartly played along with the bucket lifting act with great effort and finally there was nothing that came out of the bucket. She said, “I am just saving a lot of water and now I am going to go donate the money because that is what you should also be doing. So stop wasting water for God sake, and go and donate.” Good to know that she was one of those few who realized (early on) how important water is in our country.
Akshay Kumar – Accepted the challenge given by Riteish Deshmukh. The actor was in Cape Town shooting for his reality dance show, where it was already very cold (8 degrees of temperature). He said, “I had asked only one contestant to help but all 11 of them got ready to help me. All of us believe in helping each other. I am using sea water because I don’t want to waste good water. I would like to nominate my wife Twinkle Khanna, Ashwini Yardi, Salman Khan and Johnny Lever
Bipasha Basu – “I am doing it for a good cause,” said Bipasha. The size of her bucket was small, she posted on her twitter account, ” Don’t judge the size of my ice bucket guys 🙁 had no voice and feverish and still did it! Made my friend happy :)”. She later nominated Rocky S and Raj Kundra.
Riteish Deshmukh – He was nominated by Sania Mirza for the ice bucket challenge. The actor took up the challenge on the stes of his upcoming film ‘Bangistan’. He further nominated his good friends, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Sidharth Malhotra, Pulkit Samrat and Ashish Choudhary.
Abhishek Bachchan – He took the ice bucket challenge given to him by Riteish Deshmukh. Further he nominated his father, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and the entire team of ‘Happy New Year’ to do the challenge.
Sania Mirza – She did the challenge twice. First when she did it, people thought that there was not enough water in her act. And very enthusiastically Sania did it for a second time too. Sania Mirza nominated Riteish Deshmukh, Mahesh Bhupati and Yuvraj Singh to do the same.
Yuvraj Singh – He was nominated by Sania Mirza to do the challenge. He said, “I am not happy doing this. I really wanted to kill Sania Mirza when she nominated me but I don’t have a choice, but I’ll accept the challenge.”
Hansika Motwani – She dumped a bucket full of ice on herself in her bathroom. She further nominated Sahil Nandu, Prashant Motwani, Tanvi Shah and Tejal Patel for the challenge.
Ashish Chowdhry – He was nominated by Riteish Deshmukh for the ice bucket challenge. Later on, he decided to nominate some pretty girls. Anusha Dandekar, Mandira Bedi, Dia Mirza, Neha Dhupia and Sophie Choudry.
